I'll be back in town this weekend to visit my folks as its my Mom's b-day. Stoked to get some more rides in on the Great White, it is a fantastic coaster! Last time I was there I got two rides in on the back and they were two of my best rides ever on it.

I also officially denounced the boomerang last time I was in town. While I have serious nostalgia for it (my first ever looping coaster), it has killed me too many times. And with the metal detector "wanding" on the SLC, and the fact that it felt like train was about to rip apart last time I rode, that leaves the kiddie coasters. So maybe, even though I have all the credits, I'll run around and ride those and do a little report come Monday on Wildwoods smaller coasters.

Excited to get back down. I visit WW quite a bit every year, just not usually in the summer, so I'm itching right now. Just wish they get going on that new woodie they've been hinting at for a decade now.

Nothing particularly newsworthy, just a nice article here about the piers. I'll have a photo trip report from when I was down this last weekend up in a day or two. Haven't had a chance to go through the few photos I got.

The Sea Serpent climbs slowly, clacking its way up 120 feet to the top of the roller-coaster's first hill - and then suddenly, shockingly jolts downward, kicking up a scream from many of the riders.

But as the first car roars into the first turn and snakes its way into an upside-down loop, 13-year-old Jonah Mikulski isn't just shouting wildly. He's making a statement - at the top of his lungs:

"That's fast!" he screams. "That's the best thing ever!"

His seatmate admits later, though, that he wasn't so specific, or articulate.

"I was screaming," says Aaron Caldwell, 14, another member of a youth group from the Shawnee Baptist Church, in Shamong Town-ship. The seven teenagers from the church group visited Mariner's Pier in Wildwood - the home of the Sea Serpent - last week.

"My favorite part was going up backward," he says, with the adrenaline still pouring out of a shaky voice, "and then your feet plummet and you're going really fast down that slope."

It's a sparkling July afternoon and Ken Clements, a senior supervisor and six-year veteran of Morey's Piers - which owns this and several other Wildwoods amusement piers and attractions - doesn't even need to see where he is to know where he is on Mariner's Pier.

He can tell just "from the sound of the ride," says Clements, including the screaming that often - OK, always - comes from the Sea Serpent's passengers, especially when they start straight down at speeds that will hit 55 miles an hour before they get off this "boomerang" roller coaster. (It gets that name because the riders go through the whole loopy, curvy track, then do it all again backward, which obviously spurs a whole second round of screams.)

If you blindfolded Cle-ments, he could still tell the sound of the carousel from the old-time music it plays, or the sound of the Musik Express ride from the definitely more modern tunes it cranks out at a cranked-up volume. He'd know when he was near the Whac-A-Mole game booth by the constant promise of the amplified operator's voice, "Always a winner, always a prize. Always a winner, always a prize. ..."

And on and on the pledge goes as the people parade by on the way to the classic Giant Wheel, or this year's brand-new ride, the Wave Swinger, or the wild whale of a ride called Moby Dick.

Ed Peak, of Cape May Court House, has been a ride operator for four year, so he's sure he could pass that blindfold test too. Peak has also been there long enough that he can automatically tick off the top four questions that workers on this pier hear.

"Where's the bathroom?" Peak says, starting the list. "Where is guest services? Where's the entrance to the Sea Serpent? And where's the entrance to Can Am" Raceway?, he finishes, meaning a popular attraction that lets riders do the driving, in racy-looking go carts.

Peak's own favorite ride to run is the Moby Dick, because it lets him have fun talking to a whole lot of visitors at a time. For one thing, that legendary whale also runs in two different directions, and Peak can sometimes see disappointment on the customers' faces when they feel their ride slowing down after their first set of swings.

"I tell them, 'Don't get sad. The ride's only halfway over,'" says Peak, who then gets to see smiles breaking out on the faces lined up on his ride - on heads securely strapped inside over-the-shoulder harnesses that he, as operator, fastened himself.

But when she got off the Moby Dick the other day, little Norah Hauber, 7, of Falls Church, Va., was happy - because the ride was over. She found and hugged her mom, Megan, who was standing safely in front watching while an aunt took Norah and her 9-year-old brother, Will, on the ride.

While the daughter was near tears, the son, Will, was all speed as he also rushed up to his mom - with an urgent message of his own.

"I'm going again," he said, then running off again toward the line for the same ride. "I liked it."

Robert and Liz Esposito, of South Philadelphia, also liked Moby Dick with their daughters, Dylan, 6, and Casey, 5. But a spectator pointed out to the girls that he heard a whole lot of screaming coming from the Espositos' end of the row of riders.

Little Dylan smiled shyly, and explained everything in just four words - and not just about her own riding experience, or her family's:

OK so I think I've stated on here before my mom works for the city of Wildwood so I have her asking around always.

(THE FOLLOWING IS ALL HEAR-SAY so take it for what its worth)

Over the weekend she told me she recently overheard an inspector she works with saying that the coaster is totally back on track with construction expected to start very soon AND that Morey's is now working with a European company on the rides design. I kind of freaked when she told me this since I knew it was originally to be built by GCI ("Are you sure?? Can you find out more from him!?!? Can you find out the company name?!?!") so she is going to let me know what she can dig up. Again, ALL HEAR-SAY.

I'll be back in town this weekend to visit my folks as its my Mom's b-day. Stoked to get some more rides in on the Great White, it is a fantastic coaster! Last time I was there I got two rides in on the back and they were two of my best rides ever on it.

I also officially denounced the boomerang last time I was in town. While I have serious nostalgia for it (my first ever looping coaster), it has killed me too many times. And with the metal detector "wanding" on the SLC, and the fact that it felt like train was about to rip apart last time I rode, that leaves the kiddie coasters. So maybe, even though I have all the credits, I'll run around and ride those and do a little report come Monday on Wildwoods smaller coasters.

Excited to get back down. I visit WW quite a bit every year, just not usually in the summer, so I'm itching right now. Just wish they get going on that new woodie they've been hinting at for a decade now.

per the moreys websiteAll registrants (including Season Pass Members) must be card-carrying members of amusement park related clubs.If you do not belong to a club, then you must register as a guest of a club member at the same time he or she registers.

boldikus wrote:OK so I think I've stated on here before my mom works for the city of Wildwood so I have her asking around always.

(THE FOLLOWING IS ALL HEAR-SAY so take it for what its worth)

Over the weekend she told me she recently overheard an inspector she works with saying that the coaster is totally back on track with construction expected to start very soon AND that Morey's is now working with a European company on the rides design. I kind of freaked when she told me this since I knew it was originally to be built by GCI ("Are you sure?? Can you find out more from him!?!? Can you find out the company name?!?!") so she is going to let me know what she can dig up. Again, ALL HEAR-SAY.

Hopefully that's the case. I had emailed Morey's last year (August) after my trip about the new coaster and the response I got was from Dino Fazio, Morey's Director of Operations. He said:

"The wooden coaster we are planning is still in the planning stages. Unfortunately, the investment level is so great that we have not yet been able to finalize construction start and opening dates. I would not expect to see the ride built and operational until 2016 at the earliest. The most important thing that can happen to help us move forward is for it to stop raining. "

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